Always sparsely populated, until recently Skagen has been of interest mainly to mariners. Of the region now known as Skagen, Pliny the Eldersays (Book IV.97):
"Promenturium Cimbrorum excurrens in maria longe paeninsulam efficit quae Tastris appellatur."
"The promontory of the Cimbri running far out into the seas makes a peninsula, which is called Tastris."
The name Tastris is a hapax legomenon, recorded only once in all of history. Its meaning is not known: it may be the name assigned by the pre-Indo-European Mesolithic culture that once dwelled in the region, or by the subsequent agriculturalists.
Skagen, on the other hand, seems to follow Pliny's description of a projection running out into the "seas" (maria). There is a set of obscure words in modern Germanic languages that seem relevant: English skeg, a projection of a ship's keel, shag, a surface with projections, Swedish skägg (pronounced sheg), "beard". The root remains as yet unidentified.
Once a remote fishing area, it become considerably easier to travel to Skagen after it became connected to the rest of the country via theSkagen railroad in 1890. A paved road followed in the 1940s
